Campbell Andrews > Recent Status Updates

oh my WORD the section on fiction, I swear he’s rummaging through my brain

oh my WORD the section on fiction, I swear he’s rummaging through my brain

"*As a rule, the consumption of beverages is not as interesting as many writers seem to think it is."

Note: I have now purchased this book. It is too fine, too indispensable for the writer, and too funny not to own.

when first described the Jetta was stuck on static, now she “finds herself listening to a conservative talk station”

on 34 he says he “hardly remembers anything from college,” as if it was in the past; on 36, graduation looms.

there is a LOT of ‘business’ here, incident to pad and color the narrative. the establishment of setting and character while the story languishes.

it’s not “the New Yorker” because the name of the magazine is not “New Yorker.” It’s “The New Yorker.” careless.

(also, while personally I find its editorial standards have indeed lapsed, they still don’t stoop poems about cats.)

“deflated tires she managed to mostly inflate”

just in case we weren’t aware they needed air

(I don’t mean to snipe, this just typifies the kind of redundancy I’m seeing frequently here already)

For a writer Marianne sure is of average opinions

Redundancies and careless constructions... if we writers don’t hold our own work to the highest standard, we can’t expect anyone else to...

as stated on this page The Ugly Bear List is a TERRible book idea, more of a treatise from a miscreant— surely Ms. Boggs recognizes this...

rushing upstairs to the landline??? what year is this? she’s already Skyped

As a writer and Christian I am on high alert... but those are also the reasons I picked this up

seriously delightful. I may need to own this

I get that the survivors have to scrabble but the writer here is preoccupied with the lesser questions

awkward constructions, lots of incidental indicating. strong premise but she’s not done much with it.

Heller is so good he circumvents my deathless question, Who’s telling this and why?

Ooh, third person again.

here’s the thing about drug & alcohol abuse: it’s boring.

“What confusion tantalizes with is the belief that there is a meaningful content obscured from knowledge through willful ignorance—on accident by purpose.”

what. the.

neither does the context illuminate

Hoo boy.

Book’s not begun and the author is doing his best to alienate in his Note.

Hoo boy.

Book’s not begun and the author is doing his best to alienate in his Note.

(Also, the surname must be an allusion to the southwest writer Wallace but I’m not familiar enough with him to know exactly how.)

Stegner’s a man’s man, a real throwback to the age of rugged individualism. It’s hard not to envy his self-sufficiency, his casual excellence, and the ease of his attraction to women. Somebody even comments that he looks like Hemingway.

But as the story moves, Heller undercuts the character with the suspicion—and his realization—that these attributes may come with a cost he has not calculated.

“fisherperson”

hmm, I don’t believe this character would say that. also, “fisherman” applies to women as well since we are all the species of man.

His second wife cleaning his workspace: oh, that’s good. True and funny.

Originally I skipped this because I was leery from the synopsis but then Heller’s third novel was also quite good and I’m getting to his fourth. He’s too fine a writer for a reader to get hung up on subject matter.

I have no patience for these types of narratives: family secrets and ghosts without heaven or hell. There’s a lot of atmosphere but Mr. Stein seems to think stories are for the settling of cosmic scores.

it’s 1990. “morphed” did not enter the vernacular until later in the 90s... and even should you account for it because the narrative is a reminiscence, it takes the reader out of immediacy. (Also? It’s the wrong word.) Mr. Strein is often careless with language... a small detail, yes, but not the first I’ve encountered this word’s misuse. indicative of a deficit in craft

where’s the story? a hundred pages and all he’s giving us is hinted secrets. what action must the character take, what promise is there the next chapter won’t be more portent?